They'll all be talking about…Vampire Weekend

The preppy quartet on Their Sophomore Album, Contra

When Vampire Weekend's enormously successful self-titled debut album dropped in early 2008, it established the quartet of preppy Columbia University grads as an indie band like no other—their deft embrace of the rhythms of reggaeton and African pop yielded some seriously hypnotic pop rock. Indeed, they blazed such a unique path that writing their follow-up, Contra, proved a bit challenging. "We didn't want to repeat ourselves, but we still wanted to sound like Vampire Weekend," says drummer Christopher Tomson, "so we made a conscious effort to expand our sound as well as our range of emotions." Mission accomplished: Contra's influences run the gamut from ska to Bollywood to Brazilian baile, while staying true to the sanguine, summery vibe that made Vampire Weekend's first effort so addictive it was heard everywhere from bars to drugstores. And, as ever, singer Ezra Koenig's lyrics require both a dictionary and a globe to decipher: In the nostalgiadrenched "Horchata," for example, he rhymes the titular rice-based Mexican beverage with "balaclava" and "Aranciata." Meanwhile, the boys are already bracing for the backlash that sophomore efforts from wildly successful breakout bands tend to catch: "There will probably be an equal amount of people who don't like it as those who do," Tomson says. "We can't worry about that."